Area communities working to deal with flooding impacts

It’s not just water that seeped into the Clinton Central School District’s high school and middle school. “It’s mud, water, whatever refuse is floating around” that is sticking to walls, being wicked into drywall and seeping like poison into gymnasium and school room floors, said Superintendent Matt Riley.

It’s not just water that seeped into the Clinton Central School District’s high school and middle school.

“It’s mud, water, whatever refuse is floating around” that is sticking to walls, being wicked into drywall and seeping like poison into gymnasium and school room floors, said Superintendent Matt Riley.

Students, volunteers and disaster relief professionals now have an unintentional summer cleanup project at the school.

The majority of the damage caused by several inches of rain has been corralled to the middle school gymnasium, the high school media center and a number of classrooms in both buildings, Riley said. Having a quick group of volunteers minimized the potential damage, he said.

A dollar amount cannot be assigned to the damage yet, Riley said – insurance adjusters will come today to help determine that, and an emergency school board meeting took place Monday night.

Though the school was hit hard, Riley said driving through Kirkland shows it went well beyond that.

“There’s people’s belongings outside of their homes that have been ruined by water and mud,” he said. “This was devastating throughout the town of Kirkland.”

Kirkland was just one of the recent casualties of the flooding that has ravaged the Mohawk Valley.

Main Street in Frankfort was closed Monday night as Moyer Creek was spilling over its banks. Also, areas of Herkimer were flooded, including the corner of Albany and Henry streets.

Also Monday night, mudslides closed Shellsbush Road in Herkimer.

Hanna, Gillibrand tour Mohawk

MOHAWK — As residents bordering Fulmer Creek continued to pump their basements, discard waterlogged furniture and shovel out mud Monday, federal officials talked to them about the importance of applying for assistance.

“It’s really horrible,” U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., said while standing next to a large Dumpster on Devendorf Street. “There are so many families that have belongings, their whole lives on the front lawn.”

Gillibrand consoled Mohawk homeowner David Ryan, of 31 W. Center St., explaining that it’s important for everyone to request aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA.

“I’m sorry you had to face such tragedy,” she said to Ryan.

Ryan said he’s lived at his home for about two years and dealt with flooding in 2011.

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“This was a bigger problem,” he said.

U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna, R-Barneveld, also toured the area and assured residents that aid should be made available.

“I can’t imagine why this wouldn’t be designated a disaster,” he said, later announcing that state Gov. Andrew Cuomo had sent a letter with that request to the president.

Creek, homes cleanup continues in Ilion

ILION — English Street resident Shawn McGraw watched as village crews shoveled large stones and mud out of Steel Creek on Monday.

“I still have mud throughout my yard,” said McGraw, of 21 English St. “I have 2 inches of mud in the basement that stinks like death.”

McGraw expressed concern over the mud and said he wouldn’t be moving his family back in until his insurance company cleared the house.

“I don’t think this is healthy to be in our yards or houses,” he said of the mud.

Ilion Village Mayor John Stephens said crews are focusing their attention on getting the creek bed cleared, especially with more rain in the forecast.

“There is still no place for that rain to go,” he said, adding that Dumpsters also are stationed throughout the village for residents to dispose of waterlogged items.

Herkimer mayor lauds support

HERKIMER — Crews have been working almost around the clock to clear streets and pump basements in the village, Mayor Mark Ainsworth said Monday.

“The state crews are working 16 hour days,” he said. “Volunteer fire departments; they’re from all over the state. The support we’ve had has been tremendous.”

At this point, Ainsworth said it’s hard to predict when cleanup will be complete.

“I would say they’re really doing as much as they can right now,” he said. “We’re going to do as much as we can as quickly as we can to get people back to normal, but it’s going to take time.”

While the north side of the village is dealing with damaged roads, Ainsworth said residents on the South side continually have to pump their basements out.

“It’s so saturated, it’s taken us a little longer to get pumped out,” he said.

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Big ApplePlaza ‘quite a mess’

NEW HARTFORD — The loudest sound in the Big Apple Plaza on Monday wasn’t the music but the percussion of power tools and bulldozers tearing up chunks of asphalt.

A large section of the plaza’s parking lot at the corner of Commercial Drive and Seneca Turnpike was ripped up where two large storm drains were located; storm drains that had been clogged late last week by debris from Mud Creek. Without a place to drain, the water then grew to a 4-foot pond.

Some businesses in the plaza lost a lot of their inventory and needed to have drywall stripped, said Pete Bolos, owner of the plaza.

“It’s quite a mess, to say the least,” said Bolos, whose Big Apple Music store saw a few inches of water on the floor and was open Monday.

The plaza was one of the hardest hit areas in the town, said Town Supervisor Patrick Tyksinski, but damage was spread throughout the town.

The bridge on Chenango Road straddling the line between the town and Utica was deemed unsafe by the state Department of Transportation and closed to traffic. It is unknown when the bridge will be reopened, police said.

Usually in times of heavy rains, Tyksinski said town employees can focus on a handful of areas, specifically around the Sauquoit or Mud creeks. But with rain that hasn’t relented in days, last weekend was a different situation.

Water shocks Whitesboro mayor

WHITESBORO — Raymond Daviau has seen a fair share of devastating weather hit his village, as a former volunteer firefighter and now as mayor.

After all, there were some local effects from tropical storms and heavy rains several times over the past two years.

But last weekend, he witnessed people being rescued from their homes via boats. Washers, dryers and furnaces were mud-covered and destroyed. Dozens of families were displaced from their homes.

“I’ve never seen this much water in my 50 years here,” he said.

On Friday, Daviau declared the village under a state of emergency, following the same route of other devastated municipalities in Oneida, Herkimer and Madison counties.

Several fire departments, including Kirkland and Sylvan Beach, have pitched in to pump out basements, with residents’ homes being the most heavily damaged in the village. Daviau estimated that nearly 100 homes have been pumped out since Friday.

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The American Red Cross set up an emergency shelter through Monday in the Whitesboro Fire Department and helped dole out meals and dry supplies to more than 20 people, he said. None had to spend the night – relatives and friends were there to pick them up.

“It’s been raining so much,” he said. “When you get storms like this, you can’t stop working on it.”

Utica ‘in good shape’ so far

UTICA — While flooding wreaked havoc on the majority of the Mohawk Valley, Utica is faring well so far.

“We’re in good shape,” said city Department of Public Works Commissioner Dave Short. “We’re in a lot better shape than where everyone else is. It’s a rarity; we usually get hit hard.

“Right now along the harbor is our greatest concern at this point,” he said.

The Mohawk River was a foot or so above the flood stage, Short said Monday afternoon, and more rain was on the way. Once the water gets over the dock, it can cause problems for either Genesee Street or the immediate area surrounding the harbor, Short said.

Other than a few problem areas there was little to no real storm damage, he said.